Switzerland is a landlocked continental European country. It has borders with Germany to the north, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east, Italy to the south, and France to the west. It covers 41,290 square kilometers (15,9400 square miles), which makes it slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey. It has three major regions: the Jura, a low western mountain range that constitutes 10 percent of the total surface; the Alps, which covers two-thirds of Switzerland; and the densely populated midlands (with more than 400 inhabitants per square kilometer) between Jura and the Alps.

The population was estimated to be 7.4 million inhabitants in 2003. This corresponds to the population of the city of New York. A fifth of all inhabitants are foreigners. Only three-fourths of the labor force consists of Swiss nationals. The Swiss people consist of four language groups: the French speakers, living in the west (21%); the German speakers mainly in...